CHALLENGE: The best way to manage tasks & projects in RTM WITHOUT a task hierarchy

carib says:

Since it doesn't look like task hiearchies are coming soon, or at all , despite repeated requests, it might be worth it to devote a thread on how to get things done without a task hierarchy or folders. What are the forum's best ideas?
To get things started, one idea I have is a numbering scheme.

01 PROJECT NAME
01.01 SUBPROJECT
01.01.01 TASK
This could get clunky, especially with major projects, but then hey, maybe you shouldn't be running major projects in RTM. It is DOABLE, though , especially if you use tags & Smart Lists in combination with this.

Any other ideas( or comments on this idea?

Posted at 12:50am on September 24, 2007

graham.reeds says:

That's what I do for the task hierarchies.

It would be nice to have date arithmetic so you didn't need to go through each one changing all the due dates when one runs over due.

G.

Posted 7 years ago

raymond.bergmark says:

[Slightly off-topic] Regarding due dates: Why add due dates to tasks that don't really have a due date? Most of my tasks are ASAP, that doesn't mean they have due date "today". If you can change the due date at will, was it really a due date? Due date "never" is OK ;-)

Posted 7 years ago

bzpilman says:

Yep, following GTD, I only use due dates on calendared items and on Next Actions that have a deadline. Others stay never.

Posted 7 years ago

bruce.reynolds says:

This looks like a WBS, which goes way beyond the scope of industries and people who have no idea of what WBSs stand for. WBS is an acronym that stands for Work Breakdown Structure.

By the way, if you can pull off implementing a live WBS capability that can be accessed successfully by various interested parties online, you would have a whole new set of customers that would be willing to pay big bucks for this capabiltiy.

Posted 7 years ago

ron.warrick says:

Why not use tags as project identifiers? Just asking. I haven't tried it.

Posted 7 years ago

carib says:

ron.warrick,
That works well for what i call " miniprojects"- simple projects of limited duration with 20 tasks or fewer. such projects don't need a hierarchical organization at all. By hierarchical I mean a project/subproject/task type organizational structure
For MAJOR projects-projects with extended time lines, many tasks, and sub projects which have to be completed in a particular sequence- you need hierarchical organization, and its damn difficult to do with tags.
I've actually come to the decision that it can't properly be done in RTM. i think the best thing to do is use a tree type outliner like TreeDB Notes and once you plan out your project, just copy/paste the tasks into rtm. You can use the general "project name' tag to ID the task, but you would look to the outliner to see where the task fits into the structure of the project.

Posted 7 years ago

kradeki says:

Just wondering, did the developers give any reasons why they won't be implementing task hierarchies any time soon?

Posted 7 years ago

tutunkommon says:

Just off the top of my head, as I am new and trying to figure it out myself:

Overall project gets a list.
Each subproject has an identifying tag
each task gets 2 tags: the subproject tag and a task tag.
Each next action task has the two listed above, plus 1 tag called NA( or whatever)

all items are on the main project list.

create a smartlist that is a search for everything with the subproject tag. This is a grouping of everything related to that subproject.

create another smart list that is a search for the subproject tag and task and NA. This is your next action list for that subproject.

Any other ideas on expanding this? I am trying to get this set up currently, but haven't had a lot of time to put into it, as I am still reading the book.

Posted 7 years ago

landon.springer says:

It still has a long way to go yet, but have you seen this?

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/tips/4605/

You could set up your hierarchies like that.

Posted 7 years ago

milchflasche says:

The script(s) above mentioned is/are broken now in Firefox 3.5.

Posted 5 years ago

xxjohnboy says:

+1 for hierarchy. I almost switched to thinkingRock. I have spent the last day or two looking for alternatives to RTM but it is a case of the "the devil you know"

Posted 3 years ago

milkmaid88 says:

I use priority status to sort the project name to the top. I use tags and smart lists like was recommended. While sitting in the someday list, my projects have names only with no hierarchy. Once I decide to move it into planning, it gets assigned a numbered tag 1-5 or how many ever open projects you might ever expect to have. Smart lists filter the projects into separate lists where I can begin adding tasks during the planning stage. then I title the tasks 01 task, 01a sub task. I haven't tried for a huge project yet. It is very similar to what the OP described except that my use of priority status to identify the project name eliminates one step in the hierarchy.

Posted 2 years ago

thevans1 says:

I use numbers too to create sequences. I group related tasks simply by using the same number prefix, so I may have several tasks that start with the number 3, that way they are always grouped together.